House sends Senate a budget bill with many provisions dealing with health issues, several with less than Beshear proposed

Kentucky Health News

The state House of Representatives passed a two-year state budget Thursday that includes a number of provisions for health, including many that were in Gov. Andy Beshear’s budget proposal, but with some variations in amounts and sources of money.

And the House budget has no money for retention and recruitment of nurses, nor the governor’s plan to use $400 million in federal relief money to reward “essential workers” who worked throughout the pandemic.

Another difference is that the House budget has 100 new slots, rather than Beshear’s 500, for the “Michelle P. waiver” program for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities. Both budgets would add 100 more slots to the Supports for Community Living waiver program for similar beneficiaries. Both programs have thousands of Kentuckians are on their waiting lists.

The budgets have huge differences in the amounts allocated for domestic-violence shelters, rape crisis centers and child-advocacy centers. Beshear proposed a 36% increase for each type of organization: $2.5 million, $1.78 million and $1.3 million, respectively, in each fiscal year. The House adds $500,000 for each category.

Another difference is that Beshear wants to fund 350 more social workers while the House budget would pay for an additional 200 .

The House budget is in House Bill 1, with a committee substitute. It passed out of committee and the full House on the same day, on an 85-8 vote. It is now in the Senate.

Here are some of the health-related provisions in the House budget.

From the Tobacco Settlement Fund:

• $500,000 for the Kentucky Rural Mental Health, Suicide Prevention and Farm Safety Program, titled the “Raising Hope Initiative.”
• $1.4 million in each fiscal year for substance-abuse prevention and treatment for pregnant women with a history of substance-use disorders;
• $7 million in each fiscal year for the Health Access Nurturing Development Services Program (HANDS) for poor families with young children;
• $900,000 in each fiscal year for the Healthy Start initiatives;
• $900,000 in each fiscal year for early childhood mental health;
• $900,000 in each fiscal year for early childhood oral health;
• $2 million in each fiscal year for smoking cessation;
• $500,000 in the first year and $493,500 in the second year for spinal-cord and head-injury research; and
• $6.25 million in each year for cancer research and screening.

From the General Fund: